“Immediately on entering the Temple, Jesus started throwing out everyone who had set up shop there… He flipped the tables of the bankers and the pigeon merchants. He didn’t let anyone even carry a basket through the Temple… quoting, ‘My house was designated a house of prayer for the nations; you’ve turned it into a hangout for thieves.’”
—Mark 11:15-17
Medal of Honor citation: Private First Class Desmond T. Doss, United States Army, Medical Detachment. Okinawa, 29 April – 21 May 1945.
04/29/1945: 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high (Hacksaw Ridge). As our troops gained the summit, artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Doss remained with the wounded, carrying them one by one to the escarpment and lowering them on a rope down the face of a cliff to friendly hands.
05/02/1945: Doss, under rifle and mortar fire, rescued a wounded soldier 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment; two days later, he treated four wounded, advancing through a shower of grenades to within eight yards of enemy forces, where he dressed his comrades’ wounds before making four separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety.
05/05/1945: He unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a protected spot and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma.
Later that day, Doss crawled to a wounded soldier where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire.
05/21/1945: In a night attack, he remained in exposed territory, fearlessly rendering aid until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by a grenade. Rather than call a medic, he cared for his own injuries and waited five hours before medics reached him, carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter and directed the bearers to first attend to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers’ return, he was again struck, this time suffering a compound fracture of one arm. With magnificent fortitude, he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station.
Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions, Doss saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.
Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor.
At great personal loss, Doss decided to save lives, not take them.
He flipped the tables.
Jesus cared about His Father’s house.
He flipped the tables.
What or who do you care enough about to flip tables?
Don’t wait, take action.
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